Run Away ✧ Sebastian Sallow

chapter thirteen

October's end was just around the corner. It had been almost two months since Azkabam fell. It had been another morning of checking the papers of prisoners that had been confirmed dead or found. Today two more were confirmed to have died during the fall and one escapee was found. 

Antheia felt a little more thankful every morning knowing that she wasn't going to find Sebastian's name under the dead column anymore. But part of her worried about him being found and brought back to Azkaban before they could try to save him. Every day as the names became fewer and fewer, she knew that she needed to find him sooner. It wouldn't be long before they began to focus on finding the few remaining.

"Thea!" Natti called out from across the breakfast table, "You are coming right?" Suddenly it felt like everyone at the table was looking at her. All of her roommates had looked unconcerned as if they had known she hadn't been paying attention once again.

"Sorry, I wasn't listening," Antheia admitted, folding the paper away.

"We were talking about Hogsmeade's Halloween celebration!" Nellie Oggspire scoffed. Her roommates have been driven crazy by her absence already and Antheia's attention to them was just another factor of tension in her life lately. "Or are you going to be too busy snogging with Desmond as normal?"

Natti rolled her eyes. "Just because you're still single doesn't mean we all have to suffer too."

"If you're upset about not having a date I'm sure Leander would be happy to join you." Antheia jabbed.

"Please don't say his name too loud. I don't need him hearing you!"

With everything else going on in her life, Halloween had been the last thing on Antheia's mind. Although it was her favorite time of year. The celebration in town had already been a nice distraction from classes in prior years.

The memories of dressing up and adventuring around with her friends had always been a good time. A tradition that she had quickly fallen in love with.

"I think it should stay just us girls this year!" Cressida Blume spoke up, "The four of us have gone together every year. And it's our last year after all!"

"I agree!" Nellie very unsurprisingly added.

"I'm not sure," Natti sighed, "Andrew and I were planning our costumes together this year."

Antheia let her roommates argue about the planning. Between the parties in the dorms and the celebration in town, the three of them could work out the exacts without her. It didn't matter to her anyway.

Her mind began to wander off to everything else. A separate plan formed in her head. It was a way of getting out of the castle without one of her friends tagging along for her safety. With all the costumes and crowds, anyone could blend in with the celebration, even an escaped prisoner.

"It sounds like fun. I think we should go, girls only." Antheia added.

Her eyes swung over her shoulder to the Ravenclaw table. A little part of her was thankfully to not see Desmond sitting there yet. There was a good chance that he may have had quidditch practice that morning or maybe he was in the Undercroft still going through notes. It was difficult to keep track of him anymore.

Antheia was still uncomfortable with him assisting them at all. She already had first-hand experience with watching one person that she cared about fall down the dark path of magic. Handing over a cheat sheet to her boyfriend on unforgivable spells and information about an ancient dark relic felt wrong.

And that wasn't even taking into account Desmond reading through Sebastian's personal journal. Antheia was trying very hard to not worry about whatever he had written.